Investing.com - The pound held steady against the dollar on Thursday after the Bank of England made no changes to U.K. interest rates, while a solid report on U.S. initial jobless claims gave the dollar support.
In U.S. trading on Thursday, GBP/USD was up 0.15% at 1.5711, up from a session low of 1.5643 and off a high of 1.5715.
Cable was likely to find support at 1.5618, Wednesday's low, and resistance at 1.5765, Monday's high.
The Bank of England's monetary policy committee earlier left U.K. interest rates on hold at their current record low of 0.5% and maintained the size of its asset purchase program at £375 billion.
The minutes of the meeting are to be published on December 17.
The minutes of the BoE’s November policy meeting showed that two policymakers voted in favor of 0.25% hike in the benchmark rate for the fourth consecutive meeting, and Thursday's decision to keep policy on hold softened the pound slightly, though the currency moved back into positive territory after investors digested the decision and determine it was less dovish and than initially thought.
Meanwhile in the U.S., the Department of Labor reported earlier that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending Nov. 29 decreased by 17,000 to 297,000 from the previous week’s revised total of 314,000, in line with expectations.
Elsewhere, sterling was down against the euro, with EUR/GBP up 0.86% at 0.7916, and up against the yen, with GBP/JPY up 0.07% at 188.05.
On Friday, the U.S. is to round up the week with the closely watched government report on nonfarm payrolls, the unemployment rate and average earnings, as well as a report on factory orders.